According to U. S. law, every citizen is entitled to a
straight answer. Every city is required to publish reports about the safety and
quality of its drinking water system. The problem as NRDC (National Resources
Defense Council) found, is that while some cities do a good job with their
right-to-know reports, others publish information that is incomplete or
misleading:

Reports from Newark, New Orleans, and Phoenix
included incorrect or misleading data – or omitted it entirely.

Nearly all cities in the study failed
to report on health effects of most contaminantsfound in their water.

Most of the cities studied failed to
translate the reports into languages spoken by a large minority in their
community.

These
right-to-know reports hold enormous promise. They not only inform citizens
about the state of their water system’s report, they can also build community
support for investment and encourage citizens to participate in fixing local
problems. They are so important that NRDC decided to grade each city’s
right-to-know reports as part of this study; they also included a set of
recommendations that cities might adopt in setting goals for their
right-to-know reports.

B.Source Water Protection

Protecting the Source.

The first
line of defense in ensuring the safety and quality of drinking water is to
ensure that water sources – lakes, rivers, streams, and aquifers (porous
underground formations that hold water) – are protected from pollution. As
indicated in part 1 of this study, there are many ways that contaminants get
into source water, among them:

Municipal sewage

Polluted runoff from storm water or snowmelt in urban and suburban areas

Pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural fields

Animal waste from feedlots and farms

Industrial pollution from factories

Mining waste

Hazardous waste sites

Spills and leaks of petroleum products and industrial chemicals

“Natural” contamination such as arsenic or radon that occurs in water as
a result of leaching or release of the contaminant from rock.

To keep such
contaminants out of tap water, a city’s first step is identifying where
pollution is coming from. Once these sources are known, the water utility, city
and/or county planners and citizens of a municipality must work together to
figure out how to reduce the threat of contamination. Land purchases often
prove useful, allowing the water utility to establish a pollution-free zone
around source waters. Utilities may also ban boating and other recreational
activities on these waters, push for improved pollution controls, or protect
wetlands (which replenish and purify source waters).

Some cities
are doing a fine job of protecting their drinking water supply. Seattle is doing an excellent job of
protecting source water; Boston, San
Francisco, and Denver also get
high marks. But many other cities have a long way to go:

In Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Newark,
Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego,
and Washington, D.C., source water
is threatened by runoff and industrial or sewage contamination.

Baltimore, Fresno, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Diego and several other cities are
vulnerable to agricultural pollution containing nitrogen, pesticides, or
sediment.

Denver’s
source water challenge is also debris from wildfires & sediments from
floods.

Manchester’s
problems come from recreational boating activity in its reservoir.

C.What Can We Do?

An informed, involved public is a water utility’s strongest
ally in an effort to better protect its water supply. NRDC recommends that
citizens urge legislators not to pull the plug on safe water supplies, and
Congress should act to strengthen the laws and contaminant standards we have in
place to protect the purity and safety of our drinking water. Educate yourself
about the highest quality water filtration systems like Berkey.